The Cabinet of Dr Goldsmith A t least 13 children were killed and many more were injured when a gunman opened fire in a school in Dunblane, Scot- land. A Government White Paper...

Can the Government survive the Chancellor's resignation — or his remaining in office? BRUCE ANDERSON Mr Rifkind will not shun support; neither will he rely on it. In the short...

JOAN BAKEWELL T his week I have make-up for my BBC programme in Manchester done by a woman from Granada. BBC North has wound up its make-up unit, presumably to avoid the burden...

In the City, cash is back. But this time, says Martin Vander Weyer, it's going on the mortgage first, not the Porsche TEN YEARS ago this week, The Specta- tor carried a cover...

Michael Heath

Sue Cameron finds no evidence that Labour government will mean more open government AT THE very moment when Whitehall might be expected to start casting aside some of its...

Peter Hitchens, the Daily Express man who fell foul of New Labour for inquiring too much about Mrs Blair, defends himself PEOPLE RING me up and say they want to beat me to a...

Jeff Powell shows how wrong it is to believe that Mike Tyson's love of books and ideas only began in prison THE carpark at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas — as opposed to the chariot...

Dole's a counter-attacker, Clinton's a campaigner, and Pat's fun — Hugh Brogan is enjoying it all so far HAPPY DAYS for the senior senator from Kansas: suddenly he has seen...

If there is no God, what is the Oxford atheist scared of? PAUL JOHNSON by have the atheists got cold feet? Having proclaimed for a century that the arguments for the existence...

The man with the right idea about insurance Edward Lloyd, meet Samuel Pepys CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he man with the right idea was Samuel Pepys. Because he was plugged in to the...

Sir: One of the things trainee reporters tend to learn in their first week in journal- ism is to check facts. It is odd that Stephen Glover — whose past accomplishments include...

Sir: Never mind, James Delingpole, that Inspector Morse can drive his red Jaguar through Oriel Square and appear seconds later under Hertford Bridge (Arts, 9 March). What I...

Sir: The recent Hamas atrocities in Israel have brought to the fore the woolliness and defeatism of the great and good in this country. Typically, Simon Jenkins claimed in the...

Sir: Of course Ruth Dudley Edwards is right to prefer internment north and south of the border simultaneously to just having it in the north (The case for internment', 9 March)....

Sir: A column entitled 'Mind Your Lan- guage' is an obvious target for pedantic comment. Might I therefore remind Dot Wordsworth that Omnibus (`for all') is a dative not an...

Sir: Would you please set up an 0898 num- ber for people who want to talk about Paul Johnson? Martin Clark 1 Brookside, Eaglesfield, Cockermouth, Cumbria

Sir: If your wine critic were to admit he had no taste for claret, we should forgive him; but if he added that he could not tell the difference between Château Talbot and...

Sir: It is not good that an excellent periodi- cal such as The Spectator should be perpet- uating the myth that the Pope wears Doc Martens, even if it is via a cartoon (9...

Sir: With his usual accuracy, the tiresome Rupert Allason MP misses the point of my letter about scoundrelly MPs who use the Commons to defame private citizens, safe in the...

Sir: For an Englishman of partly Scottish descent, this anti-English business, as described by Alan Cochrane (`Flower of Thatcherism', 2 March) is a bit of a pain. On the merits...

A look in the Mirror shows there's nothing Independent about Monty and his Charlie STEPHEN GLOVER L ast Sunday morning I whooped with joy. There was a story in the Sunday...

Why I won't be going to the republican party PETRONELLA WYATT T he time has come to pronounce on the two parties. I am referring, of course, to the republican and monarchist...

With a knowing ignorance Philip Hensher THE QUEEN OF CAMP: MAE WEST, SEX AND POPULAR CULTURE by Marybeth Hamilton Pandora, £9.99, pp. 278 F rst,' as Stephen Sondheim has it in...

Nick Dent UNHOLY GHOSTS by Ita Daly Bloomsbury, £14.99, pp. 224 Y ou haven't got a very good memo- ry, Anto, but then being a psychiatrist you wouldn't have to, would you? It's...

Richard Acton MUKIWA: A WHITE BOY IN AFRICA by Peter Godwin Picador, f15.99, pp. 419 ti ter Godwin has written an eminently readable if harrowing account of his child- hood and...

Holy Patrick we need snake-charmers now, The snakes have crawled back again. Exorcise the demons of intransigence, Send your green fire into the frozen branch. Robert Greacen

Shusha Guppy ISLAM AND THE MYTH OF CONFRONTATION by Fred Halliday I. B. Tauris, £12.95, pp. 256 S ince the second world war the Middle East has been the scene of continuous...

Charlotte Moore THE PRIVATE PARTS OF WOMEN by Lesley Glaister Bloomsbury, £10.99, pp. 240 ven in my great escape I play it safe. I do it in the English, female way, the little...

I remember a man carrying a piano On his back along the street, years ago, And looking down from our balcony in Cairo, Having a good laugh at the improbable sight Of him padding...

Jake Michie A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr Century, £15.99, pp. 502 A dead child is generally worth less than a million dollars', writes the Jonathan Harr, reflecting on jury...

John Bayley THE FACULTY OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE by Yury Dombrovsky, translated by Alan Myers Harvill, £15.99, pp. 533 T ime: 1937. Following the death of Kirov, the boss of...

Christopher Hawtree FROM THE UNCOLLECTED by Edmund Wilson Ohio University Press, £21, pp. 410 Now that his mind has enlarged into such a vast organisation, it's as if...

The sword swings at the soldier's hip and on his knees the informer begs forgiveness of the martyr, who needs must stop and bless the man who broke a trust and brought him down...

a sunless sea Michael Howard SECRET FLOTILLAS: CLANDESTINE SEA LANES TO FRANCE AND FRENCH NORTH AFRICA, 1940-1944 by Brooks Richards HMSO, £65, pp. 729 S omething like 300...

The great divide Felicity Owen considers the Tate's move to Bankside and the impact on its historic collection H ow much do we care whether Lon- don retains its position as the...

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Barbican) Tommy (Shaftesbury) The King of Prussia (Donmar Warehouse) Limited action Sheridan Morley F rank...

Nixon (15, selected cinemas) Get Shorty (15, selected cinemas) Tricky Dicky Stoned Mark Steyn T he Seventies revival proceeds apace. This week, two kitsch figures, long...

Soane and Death (Dulwich Picture Gallery, till 12 May) For ever after Ruth Guilding S t Pancras' Fields is an evocative spot, shut between the cliff-like walls of a Victo-...

Victorian Watercolours (The Gallery, Windsor Castle, till 8 April) Family favourites Leslie Geddes-Brown H ow would the royal family's critics react, I wonder, if one of the...

Artistic renewal Robin Holloway S crumpled together with hindsight, the 1940s are a particularly bad decade for major musical losses. With the passing of Rachmaninov (1943)...

Scottish Ballet Double Bill (Theatre Royal, Glasgow) Women in charge Giannandrea Poesio I have always had a soft spot for Scottish Ballet because of its freshness, its...

Commercial breaks Marcus Berkmann R emember 'musical differences'? Back in the Seventies, when groups split up all the time, no phrase evoked more clearly the atmosphere of...

Men's troubles Harry Eyres W hen Foucault wrote Apres la mort de dieu la mort de l'homme; I assume he meant that the notion of humanity cannot survive without an idea of the...

Under the influence Michael Vestey D runks have had a good week on radio; often a compelling ingredient of drama, they featured in some fine story- telling on Radio Four. I...

A view from the bridge Gavin Stamp T he Eiffel Tower was begun in 1887 and opened to commemorate the cente- nary of the French Revolution. Gustave Eiffel's lattice girder...

Lesser lights Robin Oakley T he best advice in racing is: 'Keep yourself in the best company and your horses in the worst.' Sadly I will not have been among the best racing...

The great escape Taki Gstaad There is a fin de saison kind of feeling around here, with many friends having returned to London and points elsewhere. This never ceases to amaze...

Pilot error Jeffrey Bernard T ravelling has lost most of its charm for me unless, that is, everything but every- thing is laid on and at hand. I can't cope with curbstones,...

Finding an ideal husband Leanda de Lisle W hy is it,' the editor of this maga- zine mused to me, 'that so many London girls suddenly disappear to marry some man in the...

BRIDGE Double trouble Andrew Robson IT IS RARE to double the opponents in a contract that they have reached voluntarily, especially when your partner has not bid. That does...

of course, that in waiting for so long to get to L'Odeon, in giving it such a build-up, in making it, for the past couple of months, the focal point of all intended future culi-...

COMPETITION The big one Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1923 you were invited to supply an opening to the never published Sherlock Holmes case, 'The Giant Rat of Sumatra'. I...

IN-THE-STRAND SIMPSON'S IN-THE-STRAND CHESS Short shrift Raymond Keene BRITAIN'S top player and sole world championship challenger this century, Nigel Short, has displayed...

A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1989 Port for the first correct solution opened on 1 April, with two runners-up prizes of £15 (or, for UK...

An unlikely revolutionary Simon Barnes WILLIAM WEBB-ELLIS changed the face of football on the famous day that he picked up the ball and ran with it. But really that was...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I am landlord of a mediaeval hostelry north of Dartmoor. My custom is drawn from our tiny village and from those sur- rounding, forming a small, disparate but...